


An Endless Darkness, A Spark of Light

by magistera



Category: Calvin and Hobbes: The Movie - Gritty Reboots (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 20:22:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5469713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magistera/pseuds/magistera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes so much more effort than he would have thought to imagine it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Endless Darkness, A Spark of Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [oxymora (oxymoron)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oxymoron/gifts).



_"How long do you think you can keep this up?"_

_Calvin grins, slow and lazy. "As long as I have to."_

_"You don't really think this gambit of yours will work on me, do you? We're long past that now."_

_"It doesn't matter. Neither one of us is getting out of here."_

***

It takes so much more effort than he would have thought to imagine it.

Calvin doesn't know how long he's been here. Sometimes it feels like minutes; other times he's sure it's been years. He hangs in endless, silent darkness. He can't hear his own breath, his own heartbeat. He thinks his eyes are open, because he struggles to hold his eyelids up when sleep threatens to overtake him. (He imagines he is not tired, as hard as he can; to dream now would be to lose everything.)

He doesn't know what's happened to the world outside since he started. Maybe it's all continued on without him. Maybe it always had. Maybe all of this is just a figment of - hah - his imagination. Or maybe he's really wiped everything out with this power of his. He tries to feel bad about that, but he can't. Even nothing is better than what would have happened if his imagination had raged unchecked, and he's pretty sure that he's the only one trapped in the darkness. _Pretty_ sure.

He doesn't know how long he has to do this. Every time he tried to stop - every time he let his guard down for even a second - it started to happen again. So now he hangs here, in the darkness, really _concentrating_ on it in a way he never concentrated on school or homework or - much of anything, really. Waiting to see how long it takes for his strength to give out, and what will be waiting for him when it does. And maybe he's not going to get to find out. Because for the last - hour? - day? - year? - for a while, anyway - there's been something out there, in the darkness.

It looks like a spark, or a star. And it's coming closer.

***

_"So what's the plan, then?"_

_A long blink. "Haven't got one."_

_"Making it up as you go along? This isn't Calvinball."_

_"Just as well. You always won at Calvinball."_

***

Calvin's not used to keeping his mind blank like this. Usually his brain is a nonstop flurry of images, what-if's, and a hundred little flourishes and extra touches imagined onto the real world that make life more interesting. Imagining nothing - he thought he could keep it up forever, but it's unbelievably draining. His hands were the first part of him that started to shake, but now a fine trembling has set up in his limbs and all over his body.

The spark has gotten noticeably closer. Its bright orange edges have started to resolve into a discernible outline. Calvin turns his head away, trying not to see it, but he can't help sneaking glances now and then. 

He knows what he'll see, as soon as it gets close enough.

***

_"Suzie's gone, you know." A toothy grin. "I ate her."_

_"Shut up, no you didn't."_

_"Did too. She sounded just like this-" High-pitched voice. "Help, no, Calvin, save me!"_

_"Stop it, just stop."_

_"Make me."_

***

It takes further hours-days-weeks before Calvin can make out Hobbes' features in the approaching figure, but he's not surprised. There's only one person - if Hobbes can be said to be a person - who could be responsible for all of this.

Calvin doesn't even try to imagine Hobbes away. He's not sure he could if he wanted to. He's also not sure what would hurt more - trying and failing, or trying and succeeding.

Hobbes approaches teeth-and-claws first, a needle-sharp and deadly parody of the mock-attacks of Calvin's childhood. A wind proceeds him - hot and dry, but somehow smelling sharply of snow at the same time. Calvin inhales deeply when it touches him. His head fills with a hundred conflicting images. Armies of snowmen jumping into piles of autumn leaves. Pumpkinheaded scarecrows besieging gigantic sandcastles. Hobbes watching over it all, a tiger's grin splitting his face.

"Didja miss me?"

 _This is what he wants you to do!_ Calvin feels reality tremble under the imaginary assault, knows it to be his own fault. He lets go again. He wrenches his mind back to the subject at hand: _nothing at all_. He reaches out into that cold darkness and pulls calm into himself from it.

"Welcome back, Hobbes," he says, and is pleased with how even his voice sounds.

And then they talk.

***

"You knew all along?" Hobbes' voice is taunting. "Calvin, Calvin, Calvin - I'm impressed. I always thought you were dumber than that."

"Speak for yourself," Calvin says. "You're just a subset of my brain, after all."

"Oh, I'm so much more than that now," Hobbes says. "But you knew that already - didn't you?"

"Of course you are," Calvin says, but even while he's talking, he's calculating - building up a new picture in his head. Getting ready.

"Calvin," Hobbes says slowly, "What are you doing?"

He pushes the new thought out.

***

It takes so much more effort than he would have thought to hold it for as long as he needs to. Hobbes screams and sobs in his mind, begging, trying to bargain with him. "I'll give her back! I'll give it all back. _Calvin_ , I'll be good!"

Tears leak out from under Calvin's eyelids, but he doesn't let up. Hobbes starts to shrink, to fade; his voice gets quieter. The trembling in Calvin's limbs grows more violent; he starts to shake with sobs. Still, he bears down on that _thing_ in his mind that makes things happen. Hobbes turns from a tiger into a stuffed animal, and keeps shrinking; he turns into a ceramic trinket, then a locket charm. His voice is still echoing in Calvin's ears when he vanishes entirely.

Calvin takes a deep breath. _It's over_. But then his breath catches in his throat; there's something out there, in the distance.

A spark, or a star.

Or a tiger.

***

In the end, it takes almost no effort at all. Everything is dark; it's only a matter of focusing down on himself. Snuffing it out. Calvin hangs in the endless, silent darkness, tears streaking his face. He imagines the arms of a huge stuffed tiger enfolding him, keeping him safe from the cold. _G'night, Hobbes. Don't let the monsters get me._

He sees a bright orange spark in his mind, and he chases it down. He reaches out, grasping, snuffing - until it goes out, and he goes with it.


End file.
